Apparatus intended for clearing sanitary appliances

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for unblocking or clearing sanitary appliances, such as sinks, latrines, etc., comprising a pump member or body terminating in an oblique mouthpiece and provided with a doubleaction piston. The double-acting piston comprises a pair of frustoconical rubber rings provided internally with spiral spring rings for biasing the rubber rings against the pump member in which the double-action piston reciprocates.

United States Patent David et al.

APPARATUS INTENDED FOR CLEARING SANITARY APPLIANCES Filed:

Appl.No.: 797,787

U.S.Cl

Int. Cl Field of Search ..l5/l04.03, 104.05, 104.3;

Inventors: Joseph David, 390, rue Jean Jaures, a Ivoz-Ramet; Jules Hubert,

132, rue

Hayeneux, a Herstal, both of Belgium Feb. 10, 1969 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Maynard ..92/ 194 Woodward ..4/256 Perry nil" [ Feb. 15, 1972 2,274,304 2/1942 Perry ..4/255 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,101,649 10/1955 France ..4/255 478,321 l/1938 Great Britain.. .92/243 468,475 l/l952 Italy ..4/255 372,056 2/1907 France..... 4/255 464,395 1/1914 France ..4/255 5,695 1908 Great Britain ..4/255 Primary Examiner-Edward L. Roberts Attorney-.lacob L. Kollin [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus for unblocking or clearing sanitary appliances, such as sinks, latrines, etc., comprising a pump member or body terminating in an oblique mouthpiece and provided with a double-action piston. The double-acting piston comprises a pair of frustoconical rubber rings provided internally with spiral spring rings for biasing the rubber rings against the pump member in which the double-action piston reciprocates.

PATENT-[DEER 151912 SHEET 1 OF 2 F/HH/ INVENTORSZ ll ay/ J Ill/j ATTORNEY APPARATUS INTENDED FOR CLEARING SANITARY APPLIANCES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an apparatus intended for unblocking or clearing the waste outlets of sinks, latrines or other sanitary appliances.

An apparatus used for this purpose and called a water closet clearing instrument and consisting of a rubber suction cup mounted on a support made of wood or the like is already known. This apparatus is at the present day widely used, since it is inexpensive, but its efficiency is not perfect. A different kind of apparatus for a purpose of this kind has already been envisaged, but, since it is extremely complicated, it is very expensive and consequently not widely used.

The apparatus according to the invention has the advantage that it is of simple construction and is inexpensive and that it is extremely efficient. An apparatus of this kind is constituted by a pump member terminating in an oblique mouthpiece provided with a double-action piston.

According to the invention, the pump member is constituted by a tubular element made of plastics material or the like and on which is mounted, at the base, an approximately 135 elbow made of a similar material and provided with a protecting rubber sleeve forming a seal and, at the upper portion, a support constituting a handle and designed to receive the piston rod.

According to the invention, the piston is a double-action piston and has the shape of a diabolo. It is constituted by two annular members or rings made from rubber and of frustoconical shape, between which a disc of rigid material is inserted.

According to the invention, each rubber vided, internally, with a spring ring.

In order to make the invention more readily comprehensible, the latter is described hereinbelow, with further details, on the basis of the accompanying drawings, given purely by way of example, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a clearing apparatus according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a half-view and a half-section of the piston for mounting in the apparatus of FIG. 1, and

FIGS. 3 and 4 show, respectively, a partial elevational view and a partial underneath plan view of the apparatus provided with a large dimension sleeve.

As can be seen from thedrawings of FIGS. 1 and 2, the apparatus comprises a pump member or pump body constituted by a tubular element 1 made of plastics material and pro longed at its base by an elbow 2, which is also of plastics material and on which is mounted a rubber sleeve 3 projecting towards the exterior beyond the elbow. At its upper portion, the tubular element 1 is capped by a metal annulus 4 provided with a handle 5 which projects perpendicularly. The said annulus 4 is provided with a cross member and serves as a support or guide means for a piston rod 6 surmounted by a handle 6'. The sleeve 3 has, at its base 3', an outwardly bevelled shape, so as to facilitate application on the aperture in the apparatus to be unblocked or cleared.

The piston rod 6 clips into the piston body wherein it is conpiston ring is pronected to a piston 7. The said piston has the shape of a diabolo constituted by two rubber rings 8 of frustoconical shape, between which is inserted a metal disc 9.

In order to force the oblique walls of the rings 8 to apply themselves vigorously against the inner wall of the pump body, each ring 8 is provided internally with a spring ring 10 constituted for example by a spiral ring arranged in annular form.

The utilization of an apparatus of this kind is extremely simple: it suffices to dispose the rubber sleeve 3 on the waste outlet to be unblocked, with the piston in the lower position, and to draw the handle 6' upwardly. Since the piston is a doubleaction piston and thus operates by aspiration and delivery, it becomes possible by means of a plurality of actuation movements of the piston in the upward and downward directions to unblock the sanitary apparatus In an extremely efficient manner.

In cases wherein, for example, it is' required to unblock a drainage or sewage pipe, there is disposed on the opening 0 of the drainage or sewage gulley-hole a rubber plate 11 the dimensions of which are sufi'lciently large to cover the said aperture and a certain surrounding area. The said plate has, in its center, a round aperture 12 the dimensions of which are slightly smaller than the diameter of the sleeve 3. The person in charge applies the said plate firmly on the aperture from above and he then disposes the apparatus, as described hereinabove, on the said plate.

On the other hand, if it is required to unblock a water closet pan, since the aperture on which the rubber sleeve requires to be applied is not of round section, it might be difficult to achieve a good result with the apparatus as shown in FIG. I. For this reason, according to a further provision of the invention, the apparatus is provided with a rubber sleeve 13 (FIG. 3) of relatively considerable length, in such manner that, when it is inserted in the pan aperture, it will be able to adopt more or less oval form, mating the shape of the said aperture, as shown in FIG. 4.

In this case also, the base 13' of the sleeve 13 is bevelled like the base 3 of the sleeve 3.

Due to its design and due to the material utilized, an apparatus according to the invention is always ready for utilization.

We claim:

1. An apparatus for unblocking or clearing sanitary appliances, such as sinks, latrines and the like, comprising a cylindrical pump body terminating in an oblique mouthpiece provided with an elongated flexible rubber sleeve mounted on the free end of said mouthpiece and extending outwardly from said free end so as to be adapted to be inserted into an opening, said end of said sleeve being inwardly beveled, a double acting piston slidable in said pump body, said piston comprising a pair of rubber rings of frustoconical shape, a metal disc disposed between said rubber rings and spiral spring rings disposed internally in said rubber rings for biasing said rubber rings against the pump body.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, including a plate made of rubber or the like, fonned with a central aperture and intended to be applied on an aperture such as a drainage or sewage gulley-hole. 

1. An apparatus for unblocking or clearing sanitary appliances, such as sinks, latrines and the like, comprising a cylindrical pump body terminating in an oblique mouthpiece provided with an elongated flexible rubber sleeve mounted on the free end of said mouthpiece and extending outwardly from said free end so as to be adapted to be inserted into an opening, said end of said sleeve being inwardly beveled, a double acting piston slidable in said pump body, said piston comprising a pair of rubber rings of frustoconical shape, a metal disc disposed between said rubber rings and spiral spring rings disposed internally in said rubber rings for biasing said rubber rings against the pump body.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, including a plate made of rubber or the like, formed with a central aperture and intended to be applied on an aperture such as a drainage or sewage gulley-hole. 